24 March

Krishnamurti In India: The Last Decade

The Last Talks

Madras 1985 / 1986 – 1st  Public Talk

21    So, if one actually… when one actually realises this fact, that you are entire humanity, not physically, but psychologically, then you invariably must ask the question, what am I to do. Right? Don’t wait for me to tell you. We are sharing together. We are taking counsel together. This is not a lecture. I must repeat this because you are used to lectures. Somebody pouring forth for your information. So what shall we, if we see the rational, sane fact, that we are entire humanity. Right? Of course you won’t see this because to you it is very important to have individuality: I am separate from you. Of course you are separate from me physically, you are a woman, I am a man, or I am taller, that you are shorter, and all the rest of it. Apart from biological division, consciousness, our consciousness which is the ‘I’ with all its memories, experiences, with its longing and all the rest of it, that consciousness is shared by every human being. Right? You won’t agree to all this. It doesn’t matter, I’ll go on; if you’d like listen, do, but it doesn’t matter if you listen or don’t listen. Like the birds, they go on singing, like a storm full of wind, rain and thunder and great beauty of light.

22    So if one actually – not theoretically or intellectually – realises, that is, to realise something, like a cobra is poisonous. A rattle snake is poisonous, so don’t go near it. It is not mere conclusion, it is your death if you go near it. So physically we are conditioned to a snake. Right. So you are conditioned, shaped, moulded in the idea that you are separate human being. You have a separate soul, the Christian idea, and if you realise that you are humanity, not whether you question it, you are. If you look at it carefully, go into it deliberately, not avoid it, you will see you suffer, the other man suffers, he quarrels with his wife, and children and all the rest of that daily life. So what shall one do? Right? What will you do? What’s your action? Not conclusion. You understand, sir? Because a conclusion is not a fact. You may derive from a fact a conclusion, but the conclusion is not the fact. Bene?

23    I am in the midst of a sea of people who don’t seem to react to all this. Your whole religions are based on individuality, all your prayers, your worship, your… It doesn’t matter, I’ll go on.

24    So what shall one do? What am I to do, living in this society, the society that is so corrupt, what shall I do? Whatever I do, will it affect the society? You understand? Will it affect my neighbour, will it affect the man, not in the moon, but the man in Russia? So I have to ask who created this society. Right? Are you at all thinking together, or not? Oh my god, what am I to do if you don’t react, if you don’t smell something? So we are asking, who created this society which is so immoral, so corrupt, all over the world, which is destroying man, which is degenerating – right? – which is polluting the whole world, what shall I do, or not do, to affect this society? Do you understand my question? So I ask myself, am I different from the society? Right? Who created this society which we live in? Right? Are you asking that question yourself, or are you just listening to me? Are you asking that question? What’s your answer, if you are really using your brain, not just nodding your head? What’s your answer? Not some gods.

25    Q: Something that’s…